This book chronicles the overland journeys of nine pioneer boys who went west by covered wagon in the mid-1800s. Taken from their letters, diaries, and later memoirs, these remarkable stories describe what it was like to be hungry enough to eat woodpeckers, brave enough to winter alone in the snowbound Sierra Nevada, cold enough to huddle beneath a sister's petticoat at night, and tough enough to push onward despite astounding odds. Trudging barefoot across hundreds of miles of harsh land, each of the boys selected for this collection found the resourcefulness to rise above the unusual circumstances of his overland journey. Whether traveling alone through the vast wilderness to bring food to his starving family like fourteen-year-old Octavius Pringle, struggling for days across Death Valley like six-year-old John Wells Brier, or boating the treacherous rapids of the Columbia River like young Jesse Applegate, each summoned the courage to help his family complete a remarkable trip west. Copyright (C) Muze Inc. 2005. For personal use only. All rights reserved.